A day before the painting âSalvator Mundiâ sold for a record-breaking US$450 million, New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz a âprobable copyâ and a âtwo-dimensional ersatz dashboard Jesus.â
âI think weâve wished this da Vinci into existence,â Saltz told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel from New York on Thursday. âI think itâs fake art news.â
The painting, whose Latin name means âSaviour of the World,â was sold to an unnamed private buyer by on Wednesday, shattering a previous art sale record by more than $150 million. According to Christieâs, the painting dates from around 1500 and was painted by the great Italian Renaissance artist and polymath Leonardo da Vinci. In the run-up to this weekâs auction, Christieâs billed the painting as âthe last da Vinciâ and âthe greatest and most unexpected artistic rediscovery of the 21st century.â There are fewer than 20 known da Vinci paintings in the world.
But Saltz disagrees, and there are others in the art world who question the attribution. "I think itâs a real flimflam,â Saltz said. âI think that if you really look at this painting, Leonardo never painted anyone remotely like this: never anybody looking dead-on, never a surface this dull, inert -- a mess! And Christieâs claims thereâs a consensus claiming that it might be real. Actually, itâs 12 people and the foremost da Vinci expert in the world thinks on the contrary, that this is not remotely like a da Vinci.â
Allegedly painted between masterpieces like âThe Last Supperâ and the âMona Lisa,â the comparatively bland âSalvator Mundi,â Saltz added, seems very out-of-place.
âChristieâs is really banking on this being real based on maybe two drawings that are similar to Jesusâ sleeves,â Saltz said. âBut Leonardo definitely did do drawings like this, but these were done for his students to show them how to do sleeves. He didnât paint this painting.â
Although Christieâs refused an on camera interview with ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝, in written communication, Christieâs claims there were âmultiple elements, detailed studies, expert opinions and research used to assess the authorship of the painting," all of Some of the most significant points, include: âTechnical examinations and analyses have demonstrated the consistency of the pigments, media, and technique discovered in Salvator Mundi with those known to have been used by Leonardo."
As well, according to Christieâs âthe painting technique is close to that of the Mona Lisa and the Saint John the Baptist, the face in particular built up with multiple, extremely thin paint layers, another distinctive technical aspect that support Leonardoâs authorship.â
Christieâs also claims that the authenticity of the painting was confirmed in 2011 by established experts after more than 5 years of research and study. And that the authenticity was reconfirmed for Christieâs prior to the sale, by 10 separate leading scholars of Leonardo da Vinci and Renaissance period painting (including Luke Syson, previously the Curator of Italian Paintings before 1500 and Head of Research at the National Gallery, London). Syson featured the painting in a major exhibition at the National Gallery in 2011.
In another interview with ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel, artist Marco Sassone said he believes the painting is authentic based on the gaze, face and eyes of âSalvator Mundi.â
But Saltz says if the painting is in fact a genuine da Vinci, it should never have been auctioned off to a private buyer in the first place. âIf itâs a da Vinci, it belongs in a museum,â Saltz declared.
With files from ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel and The Associated Press
Update includes written comments from Christieâs